Monday, July 13, 2009

No Mawlids Are Allowed This Year

In a very daring step by all measures the Egyptian government along with the Governors of several Egyptian Governorates have decided to cancel all the Mawlid celebrations this years across the country for fear of swine flu outbreak.

At Al Hussein Mawlid
The Mawlid festivals attract thousands and even millions of people like "Al Hussein*" and "Lady Zeinab**" in Cairo ," El-Syad Ahmed El-Badawi***" in Tanta, Nile Delta and "Sheikh Abdel Rahim Kanawy" in Qena ,Upper Egypt. In fact those three major Mawlids were the first to be canceled
This is a daring decision that will cause a lot of controversy especially in the Sufi society and the followers of the Islamic saints.
The danger in these celebrations is that the Mawlids take more than one day and thousands of people technically sleep in the street to attend the events of the Mawlids, you can see in the photos I publish here.
For every Islamic saint in Egypt there are followers and you will be amazed to know that there are former ministers and intellectuals that follow those saints like former minister Hassan Abbas Zaki who is from the proud followers "Lady Zeinab".Speaking about the Islamic saints and their followers with their long history in Egyptian society will take blogs not a single paragraph in a post related to health news originally

The followers and servants of the Islamic saints with their celebrations and parades
Of course there are other followers are considered hardcore followers and they are called the servants , those servants serve the shrine and the mosque in general , I think they will be very sad and angry but they won't protest the decision, usually they are so peaceful Sufis
Of course I know that some conservative Muslims will be more than happy with this decision like the Salafi and the Wahabis.

Al Hussein Mawlid Celebration
I do not recall that the government had to cancel these celebrations before , it is a historical decision for sure. The government has its right reasons, we can't jeopardize the lives of millions ,already there are wrong practices in these Mawlids that should be stopped as these practices are insulting to Islam and even for those Islamic saints.
Inshallah the Mawlids will return back next year hopefully the Swine flu will be under control. Already I have doubt that government will cancel these celebrations for more than year.

* Al Hussein Shrine and mosque includes his head which the popular story say that it came with Lady Zeinab where the rest of his body is in Karballa , Iraq
**Lady Zeinab is the grand daughter of Prophet Mohamed 'Pbuh' ,it is widely believed that she was buried in Egypt where she chose to live as an exile. It is also believed she was buried in Damascus in a shrine that is considered a hot spot for Shiites all over the world.

***El-Sayed Ahmed El-Badawy is an Islamic Saint who came from Morocco and settled in Tanta

The photos used in this post are from flickr taken by wonderful Egyptian photographers
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5 comments:

  1. Disaster!!!

    Egypt without maulid is just not Egypt...quelle bordelle! But you are right that the salafis and wahabis are probably having a field day with this news.

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  2. ohh noo... i was at the moulid for seyda seinab last year. would like to post a text & video but I can´t add links here..

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  3. انا لا سلفى ولا وهابى
    بس اللى بيحصل فى الموالد ده مسخرة وسفاهه وقلة ادب بكل المقاييس

    المثل بيقول بركة يا جامع
    خير عقبال ما يلغوها كلها
    وان كنت لا اعتقد انه حيحصل ابدا

    ممكن تعطونى فائدة واحدة للموالد بصورتها المصرية ؟
    لو كان كرنفال كنت قلت اه ممكن
    انما اللى بيحصل فى الموالد اللى موجودة عندنا دا حاجه مسخرة

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  4. Did you know that there is a mosque in Damascus where they say the head of Sayidna el Hussein is buried (the Shiite go and visit this in the Ummayad mosque). There is also a mosque in Damascus where Sayidda Zaynab is believed 2 be buried. I visited the Hussein shrine. No one in Lebanon or Syria believes they are buried in Egypt.

    What a strange world the muslim world has become. Worshipping saints and crying at their graves.

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  5. Ayman:
    Muslims makes mistakes at the kaba too, do you want to cancel hajj because of it?

    Anonýmous:

    We don't worship saints, we worship Allah and we seek the barakah of His chosen people (awliah and prophets)
    Why critizise someone crying? If you loose a family member, is it wrong to cry? No! We are human, we cry over the loss of loved one. Crying over the loved ones of Allah is the same feeling, we cry if we miss them, it's a human thing!

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